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Short Story / Nightfall
I remember the way it all started almost ten years ago. It seems almost yesterday that I was attending my high school graduation Class of 2012. When the North Pole split in two. That was when the old one escaped from his prison. When nightfall fell over the planet.
At first no one knew what had caused the great split in the pole but everything seemed to be fine. No great rises in temperature or the earth’s magnetics. The experts of the world agreed that it was just a fluke and they would probably re-freeze them selves shortly. Their foots were stuck in their mouths when a helicopter flying over to do another check on the spilt spotted a great big it.
Not sense the Cuban Missile Crisis that my Grandpa used to talk about had American’s been glued to the T.V. To see this huge blue thirteen feet tall thing race across the pole. The creature ran like a human had the face of a human. If it wasn’t for the blue skin you might think that it was a man with a completely bald polished head. As a boy I always thought that monsters never wore cloths. This one did he had on this strange all white outfit. It almost looked like he was running around in hospital scrubs except the shirt was long sleeve but there was no sole fabric that would stand a chance against the frigged North Pole.
My family and I must have watched it run for over three hours. It finally stopped when it reached the coast. I recall thinking that right now you could hear a pin drop in most of the houses in the world. It stood there for no more than thirty seconds took a deep breath and jumped into the ocean. That was the last anyone saw of it for two weeks.
The leaders of the world had no idea what to expect next or what to do about it. For the first time in its history the U.N. had every country in the world within its walls and for the first time in probably the history of the world all of the nations were working at a common goal.
As I said before the old one dove into the sea and wasn’t seen again for two weeks. The next time it was spotted was on the shores of Easter Island. My whole family and I starred at the T.V. All it did for the next two days was stand facing the statues of Id. It almost seemed to me that it was having a staring contest with the great stone monoliths.
Around eight in the morning of the third day the leaders and their armed guards arrived on the island. Not to mention the small army of interpreters and expert linguists that followed them. Bearing a flag of peace for the strange creature. When the last of the guards had set foot on the island. The old one turned around and faced them. My house was so quiet you could hear the mice scurrying around in the attic. He raised his arms until his hand were slightly above is head. “I mean none of you any harm all I am hear to do is reclaim the Throne of Gaia. If you must call me something then call me the Old One for the time being. There is no need for your interpreters ladies and gentlemen my tongue speaks in a way that all can hear my words. Nor is there a need for your armed guards I will not allow weapons on this holy place.” The old one lowered its right arm and pointed the left one at the guards. With a flick of his finger up all guns and other weapons where floating above everyone’s head. With another flick of his finger towards the sea and the weapons were cast at least a hundred yards out to sea.
“As I said before I don’t mean anyone any harm. Maybe I might even perhaps under my guidance lead you people into a new era of peace and enlightenment”. I have never heard a bigger sigh of relief as when he uttered those words. How wrong and naïve we were.
For the next four days the old one told the world six previous civilizations of man and of the ones before him the three dinosaur periods, the Entoch era and the four Chinlan periods. He explained that not many sentient beings fossilize intact very well (except for dinosaurs). It also explained that everything gets pushed down toward the mantels of the earth. Before its recycled and pushed back towards the surface. All of the Chinlan would have been recycled by now, Entoch remnants might still be there but it would require far more sophisticated digging techniques than we possessed.
Towards dawn of the fifth day some of the interrupters, which was the third shift of, people watching the old one. (Like my family was sleeping in shifts. Some would go to bed when the they would wake up they would be filled in by the people watching so not a moment was lost) began to ask questions. “But we proved that humans discovered civilization only five-thousand years ago. How could we reach this level of technology and not leave anything behind.” The old one replied that our buildings like our bones turn to dust very quickly and our washed away with the wind. He also posed the question that Homo sapiens have been around for a million years. He said that it was ridicules of us to think that for over nine hundred and ninety-five thousand years all we have been doing is screwing around in caves.
He said that it was not surprising that we have no knowledge or record of it except for this sole monument left over. “This is the last pure spot on earth” he said, “This is the spot where all life began on the planet. The place where the oceans were seeded and the spot where the land was populated. This is an untainted holy spot the last of its kind. This is the eternal resting place of the Throne of Gaia. Then he dropped to one knee and started to chant in a language that didn’t sound close to anything that anyone had ever heard before. Even to this day no one still knows what he was saying. For three days and nights he stayed exactly like that. Except every so often he would slowly wave his arms in the air like a bird flapping its wings.
At dawn’s first light on the fourth day twenty-five yards from where the statues were the earth cracked open with a great and violent force. I remember my Uncle Jusseppie screaming for everyone to get out of bed and come quick. Dirt mounds arose around the great crack. The mounds soon became piles; the piles soon became small hills of earth. The strange creature was forcing something to the surface. Through a power never before seen by man.
I remember that moment very clearly sitting watching the television as a boy. Watching more and more earth get thrown to the surface. The statues began to move and shake, then in unison they all started to rise. More and more of the surrounding land was being hurled up in the sky. Before to long there was a giant pyramid type structure with the statues halfway up the steps. On the top of the pyramid was a stone chair with two globes on either side. It was covered in writing of a language that no one alive understood. “This is the Throne of Gaia” the old one explained lowering his arms.
It took its time climbing the steps, probably because it knew its victory was so near at hand. He sat down on the throne and the sky turned blank with clouds. Lightning came from the sky and the earth. The lightning above and below was being drawn to him. I remember sitting at home think that he was surely dead. I was wrong, to my amazement the creature actually seemed to half enjoy being hit by the strange lightning. The strange spectacle went on for thirty more seconds, then as quickly as it came it was gone. The old one rose up form his slumped over position. He sat perfectly up right in that chair and uttered these now infamous words.
“There is no need for any of you to fear anything anymore. Not war, not hunger or exploitation from your stronger neighbors. The playing field of the world will be leveled. The pressure of ruling shall now be bestowed upon me.”
I myself thought what he said was a joke or suicide, no one thing could take the world with no help. I was right; the base of the pyramid cracked and then was busted open by the old one’s personnel army. They were blue skinned like the old one and bore a smaller resemblance to him. With some big exceptions a minion wears no clothing but is protected by natural shell armor. They are only five feet tall and have no reproductive organs. We have no idea how they re-produce.
I remember watching the television with my family just seeing more and more of these things pour from the hole. Wondering how many there would be. The old one raised his arms and said.
“The world shall once again be in the service of Kai. To you former leaders go back and fight me all you want but I plead that you just accept surrender and save the lives of your people. Before you make your decision know this that no civilization on this earth has been able to defeat me. Within seven turns of the sun I will have summand enough power seize the planet. If you wish to avoid bloodshed, on the seventh day fly flags of red as a sign of surrender. Now leave this place and never return.”
They started to go back to their ships, I doubt that any man or woman there had any intention of surrender. For the next seven days the world armed themselves. The armies were filled until they had no more equipment to give. Hunting and sports stores were emptied of any weapon in them. The manufactures were handing them out at their doors. By nightfall on the seventh day every street looked like a fortress. I was driving home the last night before the attack by the look on people’s faces and the amount of fire power sticking just private citizens homes I thought that Kai is going to get wasted.
When dawn broke my grandfather was leading us in a prayer to ask the Lord for protection. We waited until 8a.m. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky so my window was almost impossible to look out from. Then a sound started emerge like the sound of a thousand falling leaves. The sky turned black as the Kai’s army covered the sky. The minions must have numbered in the billions or even the tens of billions. You could feel the wind pattern change a full two minutes before the arrived.
People got up on their roofs some to watch others fired shots at the horde in the sky. Then like the mighty hand of God a small portion broke off from the cloud and started to descend. We knew they were coming for us, when they got low enough we projected whatever we had into the air. Some shot with arrows and sling, most of us littered the sky with bullets. The dead bodies of the minions fell like candy from a piñata but there were just to many. For everyone we killed there were twenty to fifty more to take its place. But we fought long and hard and were able to keep them away. At least long enough for some of us to escape.
As the last of them were being killed my grandfather turned on the television. The news said that Kai had attacked the whole world at once and had won. Over sixty percent of the world was under his complete control. The Americans are calling soldiers of every nation to try to reach Kuwait for one last stand against Kai. I will never forget the words that came from her mouth at the end. “Humans as a race have lost. Now we enter a new dark age and every day Humanity will weep. Humanity will weep until freedom is resurrected.” Those were the last words spoken on television for me and they have always helped me.
The last stand put on by the Americans was valiant, brave and bloody. Every country that had the means to get there was there. They must have killed over 500,000 of the minion horde but in the end Kai’s forces broke through. There wasn’t a human life left on the battlefield and almost everyone’s fighting sprit crushed. Most people gave into the thought of the futility of fighting Kai. Humanity gave up its iron and chose servitude to Kai.
As I said most of humanity gave themselves to Kai but not all of us. There are a few like me that would rather die than serve Kai. We are splintered into small scattered resistance cells. Always hunted and easily destroyed by the old one’s forces. We are trying to unite with other cells and become more than a thorn in his side.
There is a question that has puzzled me from the beginning; Kai said that he has never been defeated by any civilization. Then why is he not eternally ruling the earth? Our group has come up with three theories on why he has remained hidden for over five thousand years. One the people before found someway of defeating his armies and imprisoning him. Two gets tired of ruling or stops when every one who will remember him is dead. Three he serves his purpose to the Earth and goes back to slumber until no one remembers him. Unfortunately there may not be time for our group to find the answer to that question.
Kai’s forces have located us and have broken down every defense we had. They have been ramming the door for the past two hours and the sounds of cracking oak are becoming more prevalent. I write this in the hope that it will be read by free eyes. Eyes born in a world without Kai or his armies.
THEY’VE BROKEN THROUGH THERE INSIDE. ELI GRAB YOUR GUN THIS DOOR WILL ONLY SLOW THEM DOWN FOR A SECOND! THERE’S TO MANY OF THEM WE CAN’T WIN.
GOTCHA! YOU WANT SOME! BYE BYE BLUE BOY!
OH DEAR GOD NO! HOW MANY MORE CAN THERE BE!
EVERYONE GET OUT NOW GET OUT I’LL BE FINE.
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the first sentence could be combined, something with ten year reunion, and 2012.
scond paragraph you need a comma after but. to emphasize the ‘it’
I believe this can be a very good story. Now however it is told in a ‘tell mode’. which makes it unenjoyable to read. I would look into telling the story in a ‘show mode’ stephen kings book ‘on writing’ deal with this perfectly
thank you for hearig my thoughts
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September 25, 2006
Deleted User
This 106 word review has not been unlocked.
some very good ideas in this story i think it could go far, good title would advise a proof reading i found afew gramital and spelling errors but otherwise good. very good begging but lost someof its umph by the end very good peice of work keep it up and good luck with this story
The very first paragraph should be axed. It’s prologue and backstory, and I say just jump right into the story. Get us immediately into the action rather than outlining what this story’s about—that can be done in the rest of the story, right?
Factual issues: how can the north pole split in two? The polar ice cap could but not the north pole. It is one of the two points where the Earth’s axis spins.
Well this piece might be interesting but obviously you need to build it out more. You need to do a little research to make it believable—even SF and Fantasy must adhere to certain rules. As to the rest of the piece, you need to work on sentence structure and grammar. For example, “For the next four days the old one told the world six previous civilizations of man and of the ones before him the three dinosaur periods, the Entoch era and the four Chinlan periods” could be written “During the next few days the Old One [note you’re using it as a name here] tld people of six previous civilizations, the three dinosaur periods, the Entoch era and the four Chinlan periods.” Just an example.
You can have some fun with this piece. Keep writing!
September 05, 2006
Deleted User
This story was amazing. I think that you are a very good writer. I didn’t really see any errors. The only thing is, I think it could have been a bit longer. But other than that, it was great. Good job!
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